Belinda Spillman is captaining a team walking in the Brimbank Relay for Life later this month. She tells Ian Ackerman about her motivation to walk for a close friend who died at nine years of age.
So what is your connection to Brimbank?
I work at Cradles to Crayons Early Learning Centre (in Kealba). Brimbank is a growing community, and there are lots of new resources and infrastructure coming together to make it more appealing to young families. And, from a work point of view it’s just about bringing the children and families together.
What inspired you to get involved in Relay for life?
Relay for Life inspired me due to a loss of a nine-year-old friend a few years ago. He was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of two.
He battled for years but he passed away shortly before his 10th birthday. We were very close to his family and it was hard to watch the family fall apart and have to give up their jobs, and the other siblings suffer.
Then, I heard about the relay and how that brings hope. A lot of the other cancer causes are about raising money for one particular disease or cancer. But this one is very general, and it’s to say, ‘we’re here for the survivors, we’re here for the carers, as well as those who have passed’.
For me, seeing first-hand someone go through cancer and watching the family and all the friends, it is just bigger than that one person. Cancer is bigger than the patient. I think that’s what the relay really supports, and that’s also what really inspired me to get my family and our service involved. It’s about raising hope, awareness for those around us and I guess we’ve all been touched by cancer one way or another.
What are you doing for this year’s marathon?
I’m the captain of the Cradles to Crayons team. Because our workplace is an early learning centre, we tried to look at something meaningful that could help educate the children and the families and get us all involved in the community. Also, we’re located in Brimbank, which is why we wanted to participate in the Brimbank relay.
As much as it is a meaningful and emotional event it is also a very fun community gathering. I thought it was the most appropriate event to get our early learning service into; our children can come, the families come, the educators come and friends come.
What is it like participating in a Relay for Life relay?
For 24 hours your baton has to be on the track, so it’s all about partnership and teamwork; you work together to keep your baton alive.
The idea of it is that people suffering cancer, or supporting those with cancer, they don’t get to rest, they’re up in the middle of the night helping their sick family member, they can’t just go off to the movies; they’re constantly caring for sick people. So, during the relay, for 24 hours, you don’t rest, your baton keeps going no matter how tired you get; you’ve just got to push through it.
How many people are on your team?
At the moment, there are about eight or nine, but come the relay, there will be more. Last year we had about 30, and it’ll be about the same this year. You get a lot of last minute registrations. Our team will definitely be around 20 strong. And there is a mixture of people. I think our youngest registered is 10 years old and our oldest is 50-something.
